Martha Sentenced….
Stocks are
flat today as oil prices rise on new pipeline attacks in Iraq.Â
Martha Stewart was sentenced to a 5-month prison
term.
Stewart’s stock
(
MSO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rallied on the news.
KMart
(
KMRT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rallied on the news
as well; the company is offering Martha Stewart items on sale for 25% off.
Martha supporters are circulating a petition to be sent to Bush requesting a
Presidential pardon.
IBM
(
IBM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported
strong earnings on revenue of $23.2 billion with strength in its hardware and
technology services sectors. Earnings for the quarter was at $2 billion or $1.16
a share, beating consensus by 4 cents.
Dell
(
DELL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) boosted its quarterly
outlook, expecting earnings of 31 cents a share with revenue steady at $11.7
billion.
Freescale cut its IPO
price to $13 from the planned $17.50 – $19.50. FSL is trading at 13.69.
The US Senate passed a bill to
give the FDA power to regulate cigarettes and $12 billion in aid to tobacco
farmers. Altria
(
MO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and R.J.
Reynolds Tobacco
(
RJR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose on the
news. Rambus
(
RMBS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported earnings of $8.3 million on strong
contract revenue that jumped 20% to $35 million. Oil prices rose to a six-week
high as speculators initiated a new wave of buying. OPEC will be raising output
by 500,000 bpd starting August 1.
| Dow | +20.93 | 10183.89 |
| S&P 500 | +0.24 | 1106.93 |
| Nasdaq | +9.54 | 1903.10 |
Strong today are: Oil Index
(
XOI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.22%, Energy
(
DXE.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.10%, Oil Services
(
OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+0.97%, Gold and Silver
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.87%, Â
Weak today are: Airlines
(
XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.20%, Retail
(
RLX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -1.08%.
Economic news release include
CPI prices that rose by 0.3%, core CPI rose 0.1% and the Michigan Sentiment
stood at 96.0.
10-year Notes are +270
at 111 075
The dollar
is -0.85 at 87.35
Gold is +3.80 at 409.50
Crude Oil is +0.59 at
41.00
Volume is 620 million on
the NYSE, and 700 million on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth is mixed.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing | 1891 | Up Vol 241 |
| Declining | 1132 | Down Vol 264 |
| Ratio | 1.67 | 1.09 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing | 1154 | Up Vol 236 |
| Declining | 1622 | Down Vol 393 |
| Ratio | 1.41 | 1.67 |
Top Dow stocks are:
Johnson & Johnson
(
JNJ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+2.17%, Altria
(
MO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.99%, IBM
(
IBM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.76%,
Honeywell
(
HON |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +1.29%.
Stocks in the news:
Lexar
(
LEXR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) fell after reporting a loss of $18.1
million with revenue that more than doubled. CEO Eric Stang said deeper and more
frequent price cuts led to the unexpected loss.
Netflix
(
NFLX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported earnings of 11 cents with
sales up at $120.3 million. The company said its churn rate rose after its most
recent price hike and warned of higher subscriber acquisition costs.
PNC Financial
(
PNC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) announced plans to acquire
Riggs National
(
RIGS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) for $779 million.
Stryker
(
SYK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) posted earnings of $152.7 million
with revenue at $1.043 billion. Banc of America Securities and Wells Fargo
downgraded the stock on the news.
Brice Wightman
bricew@tradingmarkets.com